Did you know that Chinese New Year starts today? It’s the Year of the Sheep (also called ram, or goat). Happens to be my own astrological sign, as well. I like it that creative, sensitive, and not-particularly-good-with-money people have their own sign in the Chinese zodiac 🙂

I won’t miss the Year of the Horse, which took away a number of our most colorful and beloved figures. Joan Rivers, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Williams, Bob Simon, and, most recently, the ebullient New York Times journalist David Carr, who was only 58.

Literary news: I wanted to mention a number of specials that I’m running on Smashwords. My first novel, The Leaving, is now available on a “reader sets the price” basis. I published it in May of 2011—it was the first ebook I ever uploaded. Novelist Kate Genet called it “a brilliant and beautiful book.” See http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/63117.

Made it through Valentine’s Day and feeling blue about relationships? Now available through the end of the month for free on Smashwords and the other non-Amazon platforms is my latest memoir, “It’s Not You, It’s Me.” If/when Amazon price-matches, it will be free there too. Find it here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/501771.